


Checkmate

by Katiebug445



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, I had no idea what i was doing when i wrote this, Written for royai week 2017, i just word vomited, roy gets sentimental over a game of chess, unfortunately
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-05
Updated: 2017-06-05
Packaged: 2018-11-09 07:05:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11099406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katiebug445/pseuds/Katiebug445
Summary: After receiving some really bad news, Roy decides to play a quick game of chess to calm his nerves, but comes to find out one piece is missing from his set. He goes on a mission to find it, and comes across an unexpected culprit.





	Checkmate

Roy shut the door to his office and leaned against the cool wood, his eyes shut and taking a moment to catch his breath. It was official now. His team was being broken up, and there was nothing he could do to stop it without outing himself, or the others. Their faces flashed through his mind, and while he knew this was for the greater good, he couldn’t help but feel angry.

 

Bradley was doing this on purpose. Splitting them up so they couldn’t find out anything else about him or the other homunculi. If anything happened to his team because of this, there would be absolute hell to pay.

 

Roy squeezed his hand into a fist, taking another deep breath before he did something he’d regret, and pushed away from the door. He needed to calm down before it got too out of hand, and he ended up setting something on fire on accident.

 

His eyes fell to the chessboard sitting untouched on his desk, and he decided that he could spare a minute for a game.

 

The Colonel pulled out his chair and sat down, beginning to assemble the pieces on either side, saving the most important for last: the white queen. He reached into the box for the ivory piece, only to find it empty. Puzzled, Roy got to his feet, looked around his space, the floor, under the chair, and everywhere he could think that it might have rolled off to, before deciding that this was a full on rescue mission.

 

Roy crawled under his desk, feeling under the space between the drawers and the floor, snapping his fingers to give himself a small bit of light. There was no queen to be found; there was nothing save a couple small dust bunnies that tried to catch fire when his flame got too close. He furrowed his brow, narrowly managing to avoid hitting his head as he got back to his feet, and began the search through the rest of his office. The sun was going down by the time he was finished, and the chess piece was nowhere to be found, so he decided to look elsewhere.

 

The first person he asked was Falman, on his way back from the bathroom, judging by the damp spots on his coat that were becoming darker as he wiped his hands on them. “Falman,” Roy greeted, “you haven’t seen a missing chess piece this evening, have you?” he asked.

 

“Can’t say I have, Colonel. But, hey, maybe you might ask Hawkeye. She’s always finding things you lose.” Falman chuckled, giving the good Colonel a knowing look.

 

Roy gave a nod of thanks, and continued on his way. He didn’t see Riza at all during his search, wishing he had her eyes to help him out. There was a reason she was the best shot and only sniper on Team Mustang, and Falman had a point when he said she was always finding his lost things. Roy could think of several times he'd lost pins from his uniform, or his hat, and hell, even when he lost his heart, she made sure to find it for him. Though, he was going to have to ask for it back one of these days. 

 

Finally, his search led him to the library, and he headed immediately to the back. If Riza was there, she was most likely hanging out on her own in a quiet corner. Sure enough, Roy caught a glimpse of a whisp of spiky, blonde hair poking over the top of one of the smaller bookshelves, and he smiled to himself, his mouth open and ready to ask her for her help, when he noticed what she was doing.

 

Riza was sitting at a table on her own, a chessboard placed in front of her, and was beginning to set up the pieces on her own.

 

Roy’s stance softened, and he watched her in silence for a moment as she began. He was reminded of the first time he’d seen her do this, all those years ago when he was taken on as an apprentice under her father, when he was much younger.

 

_Roy stumbled his way down the stairs early in the morning, rubbing at his eyes in an attempt to wake himself up. He wasn’t sure about what he would do with his time until Mr. Hawkeye woke up, but he supposed it was better to do something than nothing. He was on his way for a drink of water when he saw a tuft of messy, blonde hair sitting at the kitchen table, the soft clack of something solid hitting something heavy._

 

_Carefully, Roy peeked around the corner, his eyes falling on Riza’s back as she moved her hands across something he couldn’t see. The boy caught sight of something white in her hand, the light reflecting off of it and making it shine. Roy took another quiet step forward trying to get a better look, and Riza continued setting up her game. “Do you want to play?” She asked, not taking her eyes off of her task. The sudden noise made Roy jump, worried that he’d been caught, and she’d tell on him. “Well?”_

 

_Without a word, he crossed the room and took the seat across from the girl, the early morning sun catching her brown eyes and making them glow. “What is this?” Roy whispered, gently picking up a piece and examining it._

 

_“It’s chess.” Riza answered, thinking for a moment before taking the piece from Roy and flipping the board around. “It’s easy once you get the hang of it.” Roy just watched her for a minute, confused, before she began to explain. “These pieces are your rooks,” she said, pointing to the simple, white pieces in front of him. “They move front, back, and side to side. They’re basically your first line of defence.” “Okay?” He replied. “These are your bishops…” She began, and gave him a quick rundown of all of the pieces and what they did, how they moved, and how powerful they were._

 

_“Now this,” Riza said, holding up an intricately carved white piece. “This is your queen. She’s one of the most important pieces in the whole game. No matter what happens, you have to protect her with your life.”_

 

_The boy nodded, still unsure if he understood everything she was telling him, but wanting to try anyways. And so it became a morning ritual. Roy and Riza both woke earlier than Mr. Hawkeye, and in those moments to themselves, they played chess. Roy got to know her through those games, find out what she liked to do, where she liked to go, favorite books, foods, and most importantly, he got to know the things she didn’t mean to share. What subjects were off limits (her father, her mother, her father’s research), the way she scrunched up her nose when she was thinking, the way she watched him as she was waiting for him to take his turn, how she drummed her fingers across the table when she needed to strategize… he got to know Riza inside and out through those games. The versions of themselves they kept locked away from the rest of the world, they expressed to each other. What little things made them both tick._

 

_After her father died, and Riza left, Roy took one last trip to that house, to one of the only places he felt comfortable calling home, for anything that would remind him of his time there. He searched until he found the box with the chessboard inside, rummaging through it until he found her. The white queen Riza had let him use all that time ago. The ivory piece felt cool in his hands, and his fingers wrapped around her gently, his thumb brushing over her smooth surface. He stood, pocketed his trinket, and left the house otherwise untouched._

 

 

“Are you going to stand there all day, or would you like to join me, Colonel?” The Lieutenant’s voice cut into his thoughts and brought him back to the present.

 

Shaking himself free from the memories, Roy crossed the room and sat down across from her at the table, watching as she organized the pieces neatly onto their squares. When she finished, she turned the board around, giving him the white side, and started them off. “So, what’s the verdict?” She asked him.

 

Roy’s eyes fell to the pieces in front of him, his eyes catching sight of the queen. She was slightly discolored, obviously much older than the rest of the gleaming white pieces surrounding her, and had seen many, many battles. He picked it up, turning it over in his hands, and turned to Riza. “This is from my set.”

 

“Yes, my apologies, Colonel. Mine came without one, I didn’t think you would mind if I borrowed it for a couple games?”

 

“Not at all,” Roy replied, setting it back down. “She probably misses the action, if you want the truth. It’s good to see her getting back onto the battlefield.” He joked.

 

Their game continued in silence for a little while, neither of them wanting to break the spell of peace that had fallen over them in the moment. It had been so long since they’d been able to just be two young friends again, too long since they were just Roy and Riza, that they couldn’t bring themselves to put an end to it. When it was finally down to the last three pieces - Roy’s queen, his king, and Riza’s king - she finally spoke. “You didn’t answer my question.”

 

“Question?”

 

“What’s the verdict? Is this the end of the road for us, or is the team being split up?”

 

Hesitating, Roy looked down at the board again. Riza had backed him into a corner with only one possible move to make. He didn’t want to, but he saw nothing else to do. “We’re splitting up.” he replied quietly.

 

Riza said nothing, but moved her king forward and capturing his queen, and Roy felt a surge of anger run through him as he watched her being removed from the game. She was being taken from him, and there was nothing he could do but watch. His eyes flickered up to the woman sitting across from him, worry filling every corner of his heart for her future. She was given the most dangerous task out of all of them, and it was a deliberate attack on him, he knew. She had him cornered again before he knew what happened, and he finally had no choice but to surrender at long last.

 

The smirk on her face almost made the loss worth it. Riza began to set up for the next game, and handed him all of his pieces.

 

He lingered on his favorite piece the longest, his fingers closing over it in a desperate attempt to keep it safe for as long as he could. He glanced up at Riza again, her face trying to hide the worry he knew she had to be feeling, and squeezed the piece in his hand a bit harder. _They can’t take her from me like this._ He thought. _They can’t take away my queen…_

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, guys! Thank you so much for sitting down to read this, it really means a lot! I'm so excited to be participating in Royai Week 2017, as it's the first time I've really been able to do this for a ship because of time and energy. I hope you all enjoyed, and I can't wait to see what the rest of the week has in store! Happy shipping, everyone!!!


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